Heartache Will Set You Free
by NobleMikaelson
Summary: Elijah Mikaelson is one of the best divorce attorneys in Virginia. He decided rather early on in his career that love just simply didn't exist. But he didn't expect Aurelia Ridley to walk into his life, the soon-to-be ex-wife of his newest client. But he finds himself wanting to help her instead, and he wonders if his notions on love were wrong all along. [Elijah/OC, AU]


**_Story Info_**

 **Title:** Heartache Will Set You Free

 **Fandom:** The Vampire Diaries

 **Rating:** T

 **Spoilers:** None

 **Main Pairing:** Elijah/OC

 **Side Pairings:** Klaus/Caroline, Rebekah/Matt, Damon/Elena, Stefan/Lexi, Bonnie/Enzo, Tyler/Jeremy, Alaric/Jo, [past] Kai/OC, Kai/Vicki

 **Summary:** [AU] Elijah Mikaelson is one of the highest powered/paid divorce attorneys in the state of Virginia. Because of all the sadness and corruption he's seen as the result of failed marriages, he decided rather early on in his career that he would never fall into the trap of marrying anyone, and that love just simply didn't exist. However, what he didn't expect was to have Aurelia Ridley walk into his life, the soon-to-be ex-wife of his newest client, Kai Parker. It's clear to everyone that Kai simply wishes to hurt his ex and, though Elijah doesn't agree, he has to do his job and fight for his client. But when he finds himself comforting Aurelia instead of Kai, when he finds himself giving her advice on how to get what she deserves, he finds that perhaps his notions on love had been wrong all along. And perhaps, he just had to find the right person that completed him.

 **Disclaimer:** If you recognize it (names, dialogue, etc) I do not own it. I do own my OC Aurelia Ridley and her backstory.

.x.x.x.x.

 _ **Chapter Info**_

 **Title:** Change

 **Number:** 1/?

 **Warnings:** Language

 **Author's Note:** Hello, all, and welcome to my new AU story! I've been wanting to write an Elijah/OC story for AGES and just got around to it! So I have started watching The Originals, however, I've seen all of The Vampire Diaries. The show won't matter really since this is an AU and will not follow it _at all_ (clearly, from the summary), but since I know TVD more than TO, I'll be using TVD characters so I'll be putting this in the TVD category. Maybe once I watch more of TO, I'll add more of those characters and change it to a cross-over, but for now it's just TVD. Couple notes: one) the rating is _subject to change_ depending on where the story takes me. Two) the story info will only be on this chapter as it will never change, but the chapter info will be different each one so it'll be on each chapter. And three) there is a side **slash** couple, so if that isn't your cup of tea, then I don't recommend reading it. (And a side note to that, I don't necessarily ship a few of the pairings that I've listed, but I didn't want anyone to be alone because I'm cool like that. And one I needed just for the drama purposes.) Thanks everyone for reading! Hope you all enjoy! I would love to hear your reviews, thoughts, comments, and questions about this story!

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 **-Mystic Falls, Virginia-  
-Aurelia-**

Small towns weren't really Aurelia Ridley's thing, not ever since she left one, but it was hard to find someplace to live in the city without having the income you once had. For the first time in Aurelia's life, she was truly by herself and she wasn't really sure what to do. Until she was eighteen, her parents took care of her finances and studies. After that, it was her husband that did that stuff for her. It wasn't that she was lazy or didn't want to, it was just how it worked out for her. When Kai proposed to her right after their high school graduation, it was the happiest she had ever felt. She would be spending the rest of her life with her soulmate, and for some reason he wanted her as well. _"I want you to be mine. I wanna take care of you, Rel,"_ he had said to her. She always hated that nickname—not that there were any good ones, though—but the way he said that made her cry and throw herself into his arms. She knew that her life would always be special, always be perfect, always be exactly what she dreamed.

Until it wasn't.

Aurelia had no idea that Kai wasn't happy with her, that their relationship had gotten stale and boring. Sure, it was a bit of a routine every single day, but she thought their date nights every Friday helped out with that. But apparently it wasn't enough for Kai, who decided that the waitress with a thing for bad boys was his new style. Aurelia never really considered her husband a _"bad boy,"_ but when she walked in on him fucking the waitress—Vicki, if she remembered her name clearly—right there on their kitchen table, not even stopping as he told her to get lost, then she supposed she was wrong about him in more than one way. It turned out that he wasn't her soulmate after all, he was just there in place of the man that would be her true love. Only problem was, Aurelia wasn't sure she would ever be able to find him.

 _Should've known better than to think I'd find my forever at eighteen,_ she thought wryly as she lugged yet another box into her new apartment.

Richmond, luckily, was still in driving distance from Mystic Falls as she would have to go back there for divorce proceedings. While she would love to just sign the papers uncontested and get it over with, the stuff that Kai wanted was ridiculous. He made far much more than her, and wanted her to pay alimony? She didn't think so. He didn't need one penny of her money. He was just trying to make her sweat, and truthfully she was. At the time, she didn't have didn't even have an attorney because she didn't even know where to begin in getting one, or even if she could afford one. Eventually she would have to have to ask the court to appoint her one, but she was avoiding it because she knew that the court appointed attorneys weren't the finest lawyers out there. But beggars couldn't be choosers, she supposed, and she really needed someone to look at the papers and build up a defense against him. She would give him anything except paying for his life for the rest of hers.

Sighing, she shook her head and headed up the steps. It was a second floor apartment with the steps and small driveway to the back of the building. Mystic Falls is where she was born and raised. Growing up she never thought she would leave it, let alone leave and come back, but she didn't know where else to go. While her parents had moved to Florida a year before, she knew that Mystic Falls would be the best place for her. It was homey and, sure, a bit gossipy, but she could deal with that as long as she didn't have to pay the prices of apartments in Richmond.

"Need help there, Aurelia?" her landlord—Mayor Richard Lockwood—asked her with a smile as she nearly tripped over the bottom step. If she was anything, Aurelia was a bit clumsy, and always had a first aid kit on hand just in case. Mayor Lockwood's hand shot out as he chuckled, helping her right herself as she ignored her blushing. It seemed that, even though she had been gone for a few years, people around there still remembered her. She had been very good friends with Tyler growing up, so she supposed she wasn't all that surprised that the mayor remembered her antics.

"Thanks," she mumbled, puffing on the strand of blonde hair that fell into her face, rolling her eyes as it simply settled half an inch over to the right on her cheek. "You don't have to do that, Mayor. I'll be okay, there's not that much." Mostly just clothes; Kai wouldn't let her take much else other than her personal stuff. Clothes, books, notebooks, personal effects, some jewelry—none of what he got her over the years—and she actually managed to talk him into allowing her to take her computer.

That computer was her life. Aurelia was a free-lance writer, sending out articles mostly for local newspapers and some magazines. The biggest thing she had published was a first page piece on the water crisis on the west coast, but it didn't do much to help her career along, as much as she wished it did. It was around that time, when she failed yet again to gain something stable and successful, that she felt Kai start pulling away from her. After he went to a business lunch at the Lunchbox Diner, she lost him completely because that's when he met Vicki. The bitch took away her husband, and yet Aurelia still blamed herself for not being what he wanted: smart, successful, willing to bow to his every need, arm candy... That was everything she wasn't, and as soon as she saw Kai and Vicki together, she realized that that was why they were perfect for each other.

 _Figures that my husband would be perfect for another woman,_ she thought wryly.

"Nonsense," he said as he, too, grabbed a box from her trunk. "I'm happy to help." Luckily it was one labeled **BOOKS** instead of **PILLOWS** as she knew the box of books was the heaviest one there, and she had been worried about trying to lug it up the stairs. She smiled gratefully and murmured another, "thank you" before she headed upstairs. There was a small landing with a window that faced the front of the building with a small table and potted plant under it. Her apartment door was the only one up there and she was glad that it was the only apartment there. The first floor was a diner that inadvertently made her think of Vicki and Kai yet again, and she gritted her teeth, forcing the thoughts away as she leaned the box against the wall with her knee, digging in her purse to try and find the key that Mayor Lockwood had mailed her a couple days previously. Finally she found it shoved underneath her wallet at the bottom and she tugged it out with a small smile.

"This place is great," she commented as she stepped inside. She had seen it once before in pictures that the mayor had sent her when she inquired about the apartment through the online newspaper. It was much prettier in person with an open floor plan between the living room and kitchen with a large window above the sink and over where she would be putting the couch—once she actually managed to be able to afford one. The only things she had plans to get would be the essentials: dishes, cleaning supplies, toiletries, towels, a mattress set, a lamp for each room, and some bedding. Larger furniture would just have to wait until she got herself in a stable position, and hopefully managed to get herself out of paying alimony for her asshole ex.

"Yeah, it was in Carol's family for the longest time. Her uncle recently passed and she was the last one in the family so she got it."

Aurelia frowned. "I'm sorry about your loss."

The mayor waved his hand as he carefully set the box just inside the door. "Don't worry about it. He was a dick." He chuckled and she managed a small giggle. "We don't need the space, so renting it out seemed to make sense. And I'm glad it's going to a native Mystic Falls resident."

"I haven't lived here in seven years, though," she pointed out.

"Born and raised," he argued with a shake of his head. "You're still one of us." He winked and grinned as she smiled widely. It felt good to be back, despite the fact that she was used to the city. It felt good to belong somewhere again. "So I talked to Logan Fell, he works as a news anchor now. I know you're a journalist, but the news station is looking for good researched pieces. They want to try and expand their viewership as ratings means more money coming in to keep open. If you're willing, I can set you up with an appointment with Logan about the job."

Aurelia's lips parted in shocked surprise. She honestly hadn't expected to be offered a job right off the bat. True, she had wanted to speak to the local paper, but maybe a change of scenery would be good. Or she could even do both, be a researcher for the news station and then write some articles for the newspaper. Journalism was her true love, what she always wanted to do, so it would be good to do something she actually got her degree in. Still, having something stable like the station would be nice while she worked up her career.

"That would be amazing, Mayor, I would really appreciate that. I would owe you so much," she gushed, reaching over to hug him gratefully. He chuckled as he patted her back, pulling away after a couple seconds as he shook his head.

"Don't be silly, it's my pleasure. Your parents are good friends of mine; it's the least I could do."

Still, she smiled gratefully and promised herself to repay him in some way for helping her out like this, even if he said he wouldn't let her. She started silently coming up with a plan as she and the mayor worked on getting the last few of her boxes up the stairs and he frowned at the fact that there was a serious lack of space taken up, but thankfully he didn't comment on it. Mentally she calculated the prices of everything she would be picking up and inwardly cringed at the thought of spending that much. She did have some savings that, luckily, Kai couldn't touch so she could use that to get everything and hopefully at least find an attorney to take a look at the case and point her in the right direction before she asked the court for a public defender. Until she started getting paid, she would have to be eating peanut butter and jelly, cereal, and Ramen to get herself by, and water straight from the tap.

"Are you sure I can't give you anything for your trouble?" Aurelia wondered, worrying her lower lip with her teeth as she gazed up at the older man who had always taken care of her like one of his own when she was over with Tyler. While the man was a bit of a hothead and seemed to always be aggravated about something, he had his moments like right then. She knew he would be a fair landlord, though she wasn't foolish enough to think that he would let her get away without paying rent on time. Maybe once he would give her a warning, but beyond that he would be just as stern as he would any other tenant. And Aurelia would respect that, of course. She expected nothing more and nothing less. She didn't want to be treated differently just because she grew up with his son.

"Try and get Tyler to calm down about the baby," he said with a grin. Aurelia smirked. She wasn't surprised; that was Tyler's MO, after all. She had heard from the others over the years about what was going on there in Mystic Falls. Never had she expected Tyler to be with anyone long term, let alone another man, let _alone_ Jeremy Gilbert. But they were happy, and that's what counted. And thanks to Jeremy's friend Anna, they were finally getting a baby. They were happy and Aurelia was happy for them. All of her old friends were with great people and, while she was admittedly a little bit jealous that her happiness was cut short because of her selfish husband, she couldn't be more thrilled that they were living their dreams. They had kids, significant others, dream jobs...just the lives they wanted.

 _You just have to be patient and work hard to get yours,_ the angel on her shoulder said.

 _Yeah right, it would've happened by now. You're stuck in this rut for the rest of your life_ , the demon on her other shoulder argued.

And she didn't know which one to listen to.

Sighing to herself, she nodded and kept the smile on her face despite her internal mood swings. "I can do that. I was planning on seeing him soon anyway. He's a deputy now, right?"

The mayor nodded. "Yeah, and can you believe that little Matt Donovan is the sheriff?"

Aurelia had heard and it was a bittersweet feeling because it was amazing that he got such a wonderful title at only twenty-five, but on the flip side, she knew it was because Liz Forbes had succumbed to her brain cancer about six months previously. Liz was a wonderful woman and she had been so terribly upset that she couldn't go back for her funeral. At the time, Kai was pulling his power card and wouldn't let her drive so far _"for such a useless event."_ She had been so furious with him, but ultimately it was he that purchased her car—the one she drove at the time, her current car was a piece of crap she bought off an old acquaintance so she could take the drive back to Mystic Falls—and paid for her gas while she wrote and searched for a publication to print her stories. It was only fair that she listened, but that didn't mean she didn't hate him for it. That was just more ammunition for her, though, because she was going to use his control freak ways against him in the settlement to at least get the alimony waived. He could take everything else, she didn't want it. But she didn't— _couldn't_ —pay alimony to a man that made more in a month than she did in a year. It wasn't the least bit fair. Luckily she still had emails and text messages that proved of these accusations so she could prove to the attorneys as well as the judge that he wasn't all he was cracked up to be.

"It's unbelievable, and so great for him," she said in response. The mayor's phone rang a moment later and it was then he bid her goodbye, promising to check up on her. She thanked him once again and shut the door behind him as he walked out, speaking to what sounded like his wife on the phone as he descended the stairs. Aurelia gently shut the door behind him and glanced around, taking in the large, beautiful, empty space. At least she was getting a good deal on it, not including electric, but that wouldn't be all that much because she used very little anyway. She was always raised to turn off or unplug anything that could be when leaving a room, so that's exactly what she did.

But considering she spent the night before packing everything and all of that day driving, she wasn't in the mood to unpack just yet, not that she had anywhere to put anything. So instead she just dragged everything to the proper room, stacking them neatly so she could see the side that told her what was in them, and then grabbed her keys again. Luckily the Grill wasn't too far away from where she was, so she decided to just walk instead of drive. She wanted to treat herself to a quick drink and forget her problems for a little while.

Locking up her apartment, she headed downstairs and bypassed her car, smiling as the familiar town square came into view and, despite missing the city, couldn't help but feel like she made the best choice of her life.

.x.x.x.x.

 **-Richmond, Virginia-  
-Elijah-**

Sometimes, Elijah Mikaelson really hated his job. It was just the moments like this when arrogant assholes decided that they wanted to take their spouses for all that they were worth, leaving them with nothing worth of anything. Kai Parker was just one of those assholes, making more than five average families working as a VP at a multi-national, multi-million dollar tech company, and still wanting to take his soon-to-be ex-wife to the cleaners, the wife who didn't make even half that in five years of working as a free lance journalist.

"She's so lazy, so this will teach her a lesson," Kai said, his fingers gripping those of the woman next to him—introduced as Vicki Donovan, and very clearly not his wife—and the smirk on his face told Elijah that it went a bit deeper than wanting to _"teach her a lesson."_ He simply wanted to prove his dominance, to hurt her and take everything form her just because he could. And the fact that he was willing to pay Elijah's prices told him that he was manipulative and vindictive and not afraid to do whatever he could just to bring his wife down. Kai Parker wanted to win and usually Elijah had no trouble with that, but maybe it was the cruel, conceited smirk on his face that just rubbed the attorney the wrong way. Part of him wanted to tell him to get packing, but he knew that he wanted the paycheck as much as Kai wanted to take his wife down. Elijah did like his money, after all, that's part of why he worked so hard to become one of the highest paid divorce attorneys in the state. Between that and the power rush he got from it, it was his own personal form of heroin.

Plus he knew that Kai had many high-powered friends and they all liked their divorces as much as their money, so he bit his tongue from lashing out at the odious man as he nodded along to what he was saying, scribbling notes onto his paper, even though there was a recorder going so he didn't miss anything. Still, it was his preference to write things down as he heard them, that way he could make notes of things like the tone of voice, the body language, and that cruel smirk that Kai had.

"The judge will ask how losing Mrs. Parker's income will effect your life," Elijah pointed out.

Kai let out a laugh as Vicki smirked herself. "I highly doubt it will," he said. "It's not my life I'm worried about, it's hers. She needs a good wakeup call." He shook his head. "And she's not a Parker, by the way. She refused to change her name." He rolled his eyes. "Her name is just Ridley, Aurelia Ridley."

Elijah paused, the name very unique and actually, he thought it quite beautiful. But of course he didn't say such things as he nodded, breaking free from his ridiculous thoughts, and made some more notes.

"I understand, but if you tell that to the judge, you'll get laughed out of the courtroom. You'll need to explain how your life with be effected negatively without a second income."

Kai's smirk fell into a frown and he leaned forward, clasping his hands together in front of him on the table. His look was now one of sinister contempt as he stared the attorney down, but Elijah never feared any man. Not physically or mentally; he was more than a match for them. "If I have to, but that better not get out. If people hear that, they'll think that I'm going broke and I'll be laughed out of my office. I have a reputation to uphold."

Elijah resisted the urge to roll his eyes as he wrote down what Kai said and made the note _"egotistical"_ next to it. While Elijah knew he wasn't exactly the judge, jury, and executioner when it came to people like that seeing as he was perfectly fine in wearing or riding around in his money, but there was a fine line between buying a Lamborghini and sitting there trying to take his ex-wife's money just because he wanted to be a dick. And while Elijah knew there were plenty of other questions he had to ask, he had just about enough of Kai Parker for one day so, after he finished his last note, he stood up. The younger man looked confused.

"Well, Mr. Parker, I think I have what I need for now. I need to start building up our defense and speak with Miss Ridley's attorney."

Kai barked out a laugh as he stood and pulled Vicki up with him as he, too, stood. "Aurelia doesn't have an attorney." He smirked. "Can't afford it."

"Serves her right," Vicki purred as she clutched Kai's arm. Elijah bit back the retort that Vicki was a waitress and made much less than Aurelia did; he figured his client wouldn't enjoy that and he wanted this case. Already the Richmond papers were printing that VP Malachai Parker was divorcing his journalist wife. They didn't bother with her name, but he was sure Kai had something to do with that as he was definitely an attention seeker. Part of him wondered if that's what this was all about, his reputation was getting stale so he wanted to kick it up a notch with a high profiled divorce and a whirlwind romance with the woman that _"helped him pick up the pieces."_

"I will speak with Miss Ridley directly then, and will be back in touch with you after," Elijah said. He held his hand out and shook hands with Kai and then with Vicki and, to his relief, they left right after. Since Elijah didn't have any other clients that afternoon, he decided to pack up his briefcase and head home to finish up there. There he had bourbon and whiskey and the ability to be able to take off his tie. Plus, his office was far more comfortable at home than downtown at his practice, and there were a lot less people poking their heads in and out trying to speak to him while he worked. Ever since his brother and sister left Richmond to follow his brother's love to some small town there in Virginia, Elijah was alone and he decided he liked it that way.

He had never been alone before then. Since their parents passed away when he seventeen, the Mikaelson siblings had always lived together. But they got older, slowly they all started heading out on their own, following one dream or another. Finn—who was twenty when Mikael and Esther died and took his siblings in—had transferred to a military base in Texas. After that, Klaus followed the girl he loved to some small town there in Virginia. Rebekah went with him as soon as she could; she and Klaus were always close, almost as if they were twins even though they were born five years apart, but they just had that bond that Elijah had once admitted being jealous about. Kol had left as soon as he turned eighteen and went to Vegas where he decided gambling and drinking were much more useful than getting a college education.

The home that Elijah lived in was the same home he lived in his whole life, the one that had all the memories of his parents and siblings in their walls, the one that had been left to the five of them in the event of their parents' demise. When the others left, they signed their portions over to the others, which in the end lead to the house belonging just to Elijah. And it was a nice house, but far too big for one person, no matter how much he modernized it and redecorated it.

 _Mother would hate it,_ he thought wryly as he stepped through the front door and kicked it shut behind him. He hung up his coat neatly and dropped his keys onto the table there in the foyer. His shoes were kicked off and, even though he was a bit hungry, he bypassed the kitchen in favor of heading upstairs to his office to get done what he needed to on his cases, deciding to end the evening with Kai's because he was still a tad on the agitated side from the earlier meeting. The guy was a lot to take in all at once, and he felt himself feeling a bit sympathetic towards his ex, which is something he never felt before. Elijah didn't do sympathy or empathy or guilt or anything like that, especially for a woman that he never even met, and one he would be fighting to destroy.

Sighing, he scrubbed a hand through her hair, not caring if it got disheveled now that he was home and he didn't have to be professional. He worked on getting all his papers out and set up neatly over the desk before he plugged his thumb drive into the USB port drive so he could look at his files, which included the recording of his conversation with Kai as he had uploaded it before he left the office. Truthfully he didn't want to actually hear it again, his notes on the man were enough, but sometimes it was best if he listen to it as it picked up pieces of the conversation he forgot to write down or hadn't gotten to in time. It was how he survived college and so he took that ability into his professional career as well.

Diligently he worked through his other cases, none as high profiles as Kai Parker's, but finally around seven PM he rolled around to that one again. He sighed and opened the file, listening to it through piece by piece, making more notes and setting up the argument to get Kai what he wanted; he was good at arguing, after all. His parents always joked with him about it, but he knew they wouldn't be surprised to find out that he became a lawyer.

Once he was done with the recording, he pulled his office phone closer and rifled through papers until he found Aurelia Ridley's phone number. _Sorry about this, ma'am,_ he thought as he punched in the numbers. It rang a few times and Elijah shifted a bit before it finally went to voicemail.

 _"Hey, this is Aurelia Ridley. I'm not here, so just leave a message. Bye!"_

Elijah raised an eyebrow and sat up straighter as if she could see him while he left this message. _Her voice is as pretty as her name,_ he thought to himself, and then mentally kicked himself once again for ridiculous thoughts. There were reasons why Elijah was the only one out of his siblings that didn't have a significant other. Even Kol, the womanizing playboy, had a girlfriend he claimed to love. Finn was married, Klaus was married, Rebekah had a boyfriend... But Elijah saw the dark side of relationships. The hurt, the pain, the anger...the love that people claimed to have had at once point gone and resulting in bitterness and resentment. Elijah saw the darkest of people do the darkest of things when it came to trying to hurt someone else—hence, Kai Parker—and he refused to be apart of any of it. Rebekah always demanded that he was lonely, but he refused to acknowledge that fact. Because he didn't believe he was; he wasn't like his siblings that needed someone around them all the time.

The beep brought him out of his thoughts and he cleared his throat.

"Hello, Miss Ridley. My name is Elijah Mikaelson and I am Malachai Parker's divorce attorney. Mr. Parker informed me that you do not have an attorney yourself, so I am contacting you directly. I need to speak with you, ask you some questions, and set up a time to meet. Please contact me back at 555-555-0190. Thank you, Miss Ridley, and have a wonderful day."

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 **Author's Note:** I'm going to be setting up posts for outfits throughout this story. If you want to check them out, head to **Polyvore** and search **alysalvatore** and you should be able to view them. :) Thanks for reading, and comments are love!


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